Saturday, December 26, 2009

Dispatches From Home: Pop's Church's

[Pictured: Church's tasseled loafers purchased in 1984.]

As the bloggers return home for the holidays a bunchof posts are popping up chronicling their father's wardrobes. Despite the NY Times' supposed generational style gap (I won't get into my critique of this now) many of us have well-dressed fathers who knew, and still know, a thing or two about classic style. My father is no exception.

When my dad was married in July of 1984 he decided against wearing gaudy tuxedo shoes and instead went with a classic pair of moc toe Church's tasseled loafers. I have no doubt that to this day these are the most expensive shoes my father has ever owned. Having paced the house in these quite a few times I can speak on the timeless quality and craftsmanship of these wonderful shoes. The calfskin leather is soft as anything and the "sturdiness" is something that must be felt to be believed.

Everyone is always preaching to "buy once for life" and I cannot think of a better example. A pair of Church's is sure to put an initial dent in your wallet, but when you are talking in terms of investments it seems quite reasonable. Not many shoes bought in 1984 look even better today than when they were first purchased and at around 26 years old the breakdown on these comes out to approximately $15 per year, which when you think in terms of value is ridiculously reasonable. In fact, the value of these shoes is almost robbery on the customer's end. Buy one pair of shoes from Church's and if you are a simple guy you may never buy another pair of shoes in your entire life.

My father is a tasseled loafers kind of guy and he has quite a few pairs (Florsheim, Johnson & Murphy, etc.) but none of his other shoes can hold a candle to the Church's. After all these years, and a resoling here and there, they are truly a marvel of style, quality and craftsmanship. I'm not pressing my pops to get my hands on these shoes as I know one day they will find their way into my wardrobe. Whether that day is my own wedding day or not, I will be honored and humbled to be wearing a piece of my family's history as I add to it my own. And I'll be looking damn good as I do.

In the mid-80s there was a Church's shop in the Dallas Galleria where I bought some of my early serious shoes including black tassels and black longwings. Then I put on weight and my foot grew. The shoes are long gone. Good for your dad for keeping his.